Collector’s Spitfire Fuselage Sells for £18,000

Overview

• The fuselage of Supermarine Spitfire F Mk 22 PK519 was sold at Dominic Winter Auctioneers on 8 October for £18,000.
• The airframe is largely made from replacement panels built on original wooden formers but includes a cockpit window assembly, a Perspex canopy and five original Griffon propeller blades.
• The piece was the final project of Peter Arnold, known in the Spitfire community as “Mr Spitfire,” who rescued multiple fuselages from scrapyards and kept PK519 in his Newport Pagnell garage for decades.
• Dominic Winter Auctioneers called it a privilege to list the lot and said Arnold was a leading Spitfire historian, expressing hope the collection will be preserved and appreciated by other collectors.
• The sale marks a shift from private stewardship to the collector market and could lead to the dispersal of Arnold’s archive of parts and artifacts to other enthusiasts or museums.